This is the massive pile of bread my roommate and I brought home from the Essential Bakery bread dumpster. Faced with such a daunting load of carbohydrates, we decided that there was only one thing we could do--make bread pudding. Not just any bread pudding, but whole wheat bread pudding! This is something I have never done. Technically, it is two things I have never done, both the bread pudding making and also with whole wheat bread. I kind of wished I had some rum in the house, but as it was too late to go to a liquor store, we stuck with milk, eggs, butter, raisins, brown sugar, and some tasty spices--cinnamon and nutmeg.
The resulting product, while not being especially beautiful to look at because it is, after all, bread pudding, but was delicious, warm, and a wintry treat that kind of made me wish I had a hot toddy to go with it. Again, next time.
We still had a lot of bread, which we continued to consume in a variety of ways, including a favorite... dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The morning after the bread pudding experiment, we made french press with a most amazing Stumptown coffee, and I made french toast with a sourdough fremont loaf. French toast is something I don't make often, but every time I do, I wonder why it has been so long. I want to experiment with another french toast recipe in the near future that I found that had anise in it. This time, however, I made rather traditional french toast with a little vanilla and nutmeg in it.
Another important thing I learned over the couple of days that followed is what a difference it truly makes to have a good bread knife.
I don't get how essential bakery throws all that bread away. That's not being green. That took resources to make and resources to make the resources that went into the bread. If you can make bread pudding out of it so can they. Or sell it day old or give it to a charity or something. Sheesh.
ReplyDeleteI will have to check out their dumpster one day. Sounds like the carb mother lode!
That bread pudding looks good. I haven't made any in ages. I wouldn't have thought of wheat but I can see it working. You're right, rum would probably help. ;-)
Panettone, which is a sweet Italian christmas bread, makes awesome French toast, but then again I don't think I've ever had bad French toast.
It really is the carb mother lode. I guess some days are "better" than others (more bread? fresher bread? I don't know) but we did quite well for ourselves!
ReplyDeleteRecently, Heather made french toast from a brioche loaf and it was absolutely divine.